Everybody Got a Story (Part II)

Kritvik Bhatt

“Vikram and I used to be best friends…”

It was an image of some couple of years ago that hit his mind. Amit, the same skinny-like guy, and Vikram, just as meek as him, were in the same school uniform of white shirt and blackish blue pants as they walked beside each other, their hands in their pockets.

“I had been friends with that motherfucker for such a long time that I couldn’t even fucking remember when I first saw him and when we first befriended each other.”

“Ah, what ya said, huh?” Little Amit’s hands were in his shorts’ pockets as he walked toward another boy his age.

That boy had glasses on and he was scared as he stepped back. After another step back, his back hit the brown wall behind him, and he couldn’t walk farther back.

Amit moved his face just some inches away from his face, looked at him eye to eye from his frowning eyes to his widened scared ones, and said, “Say that word to me again, and Imma…”

“Stop it, motherfucker.”

Amit turned his head to his right, from where the dialogue had called him out. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the guy. “Vikram?”

“Stop that shit,” Vikram said again.

“Huh? He was telling me to fuck off, man.”

For some reason, Vikram just walked toward him, stood beside him, and then turned to the guy with glasses, who was breathing in and out with his open mouth, maybe thinking he might be safe now. “Imma take care of this guy.”

“W-W-Wha—?!” The boy was absolutely shocked.

“The hell?! He’s my prey!” Amit fought back.

“Who fucker asked?” Vikram asked him, directly looking into his eyes. Both of them had some conversation, maybe, with their eyes.

Then, Amit nodded after a few seconds and stepped backward.

“We could… read each other’s mind, and… we were ready to fight anyone who fucked with us,” Amit narrated to Akshay.

Amit was at the gym, his head tilted down toward the dumbbell on the ground. Akshay was on another gym bench to his left. The place was filled with the clicks and clanking of gym equipment all around them and people using them. They were at the corner. Amit moved his head up, looking at his reflection in the mirror or thinking about some stuff. “We were such good friends that if someone touched me, he’d fuck that guy up, and if someone touched him, I’d fuck that guy.”

Akshay nodded as he glared at him, nodded, and then turned his shiny black face downward. “Goddammit.”

“Yeah, that motherfucker…” Amit smiled. “He was so close to me at one phase of my life. Sixth grade, seventh grade… We had so much fun. We used to bully kids, get scolded, and then we were back doing the same shit.” Amit turned his head to his left at Akshay, who turned his head up at him. “Our teachers tried so hard to separate us. They’d make sure we sit away from each other during classes, fill our ears about how the other one was being a ‘bad influence’ for us, and all that shit. They tried to fuck us up so hard.”

Akshay grinned. “The fuck…? I never imagined you were this close.”

“Ah, considering how fucked up this shit is today, I don’t think you could have ever imagined it, asshole.”

Akshay then asked, “But then, what the fuck happened?”

“Eh, that’s a bit complicated.”

***

“So, commerce is made of economics, business studies, accounts, and math, right?”

“Yeah, pal,” Aaryan replied. He was on my left as we continued to walk through the dark street with occasional streetlights and houses around us, his hands in his pockets and his face serious, for some reason.

Aakash, who was on my left, added, “The worst thing about commerce is that you can’t choose an optional subject.”

I turned to him. “What’s that, man?”

“The hell, mate? For real, you don’t have a clue. Were you sleeping this whole time or what?”

I smiled awkwardly.

“In sciences, you have three main subjects—physics, chemistry, and an option between biology and math. Ya got that much, right?”

“Right,” I turned to Aaryan.

“Alright. English is permanent, you just have to take it. Now that leaves you with another subject, since you only have four. That’s what you call an optional subject.”

“Damn, so I can choose any random subject?”

“Same as in sixth subject,” Aakash added. “Anything you like. But, a school does not offer a single class for the sixth subject, whereas the school has to provide classes for the fifth subject.”

“Damn,” I turned my head to the front. “That’s great.”

“And humanities, as you know, is made of subjects of social science and other random subjects that exist, like dance and music and shit,” Aaryan added.

I nodded.

“So, which one do you want to choose?” Aakash asked me with a smile as he looked at me.

Aaryan too turned to me and asked, “Yeah, pal. What do ya wanna do?”

“I… I don’t know, man…”

“Ya see, you should just think about what you like to study—social studies, science, or math. This shit becomes easier that way.”

“I… I, for some reason, don’t necessarily… like any one of them…”

“The hell?!” Aakash exclaimed as he narrowed his eyes. “I thought you were a straight-A student!”

“I-I score around ninety or eighty-eight, but…”

“Then why don’t you have a favorite subject, mate? I thought every topper had one.”

“I don’t believe in childish stuff like favorite subject, favorite teacher, or some stuff. I just… study, maybe, and… I score marks. My mom always made me study, so I thought I was just… supposed to do it, for some reason. I never studied because I liked it, but because I had to do it—just like people eat, sleep, or stuff like that.”

“The… hell…?” Aakash’s eyes were wide open.

Aaryan turned to me and said, “Ya see, not everyone believes in that shit. But still, ya gotta find out what ya like best, and then make a decision. Don’t listen to those assholes who say science is best and blindly take it, alright?”

I nodded.

“Think about what you’d like to study further, what you’d like to become, and think about all that shit up before making a decision. It helps, ya see.”

“Okay, man.”

***

“Then, in eighth grade, he started gymming,” Amit told him.

“The fuck?! In eighth grade?!” Akshay shockingly asked.

Amit smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that asshole was the first one among us to start gymming.”

“That fucker…”

Amit then turned to the mirror on the wall in front of him again and said, “It was during the first week of summer or some time around that, I guess. But, all I remember is that when he came back from it, he was super famous with girls and other guys. He was the fucking star of the school.”

Akshay nodded as he seriously listened to the story. No doubt he was invested in it.

“Some time passed by. And then, COVID came when we were in ninth grade. And after we returned, that motherfucker’s fame was on a different level. Even the assholes of class twelfth were scared of that motherfucker.”

Akshay turned his head down. “That fucker is charismatic, goddammit. I used to be loyal to that fucker too.”

Amit nodded as he turned his head downward. The same dumbbell was still lying toward him. “Over time, the distances between us grew. He made a lot of new friends, and I… looked at all those assholes with him from the sidelines. I never made friends before him, never after him.”

“Y’are a lone soldier too, huh?”

“Eh? Can say, motherfucker,” Amit replied. He then turned his head to the front and stood up. “Things got worse when we got into a bitter fight one day.”

Amit remembered his own voice exclaiming, “What, motherfucker?!” He remembered the day when he stood at the back of his white school building, on the street in front of the brown painted wall of the school with patches in it, for some reason, and some cars parked around.

In front of him stood Vikram, who had his hands in his pockets as he glared irritably at him with his narrowed eyes. “Yeah, I know ya know the shit about our drug deals.”

“Eh? So?”

“So I just wanna tell ya not to go to teachers or do some shit like that, motherfucker. Or else…”

He stood about a couple of steps away from me. His narrowed eyes glared directly at my widened eyes. “Asshole, ya can’t stop me.”

“By the way, I ain’t asking for yer mercy, motherfucker. That’s a fucking warning.”

“Y’are… gonna fight with me?”

“‘Fight’? I ain’t gonna fight ya…”

“I’m gonna kill ya, motherfucker.”

I stepped back as I heard those words. “Eh? D’ya wanna…”

“Ami—”

“We used to be friends, Vikram.”

“Who fucker asked, motherfucker?” Vikram coldly replied.

Akshay asked me, “But why did ya wanna complain about that shit?”

“I used to be a fucking immature asshole back then, motherfucker,” Amit replied as he looked downward at Akshay.

Akshay had his head tilted up toward Amit.

“Tell me, eh? Who fucker asked for yer mercy, motherfucker?” Vikram said as he walked toward him—in the past, obviously. His white shirt was tucked out of his blue uniform pants, whereas Amit’s was tucked in. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. He stood right in front of his eyes. Amit was trying damned hard not to look scared, but he couldn’t hide it. Somewhere, his eyes, no doubt, told Vikram that he was frightened. “Lemme tell ya, motherfucker, I’m gonna break yer balls if I get in any shit just because of ya.”

“I guess ya are gone insane,” Amit said as he pushed his chest back, but Vikram only moved a few inches.

“Y’are fucking weak. Ya wanna see how weak y’are?”

“W-What…”

“By the way, why the fuck am I asking ya?!”

“Then what did he do?” Akshay asked him.

Amit stood silently, his head tilted a little downward, and only his back visible to Akshay.

Akshay then turned toward the mirror, and he looked at the narrowed painful eyes of Amit.

“I was fucked. And… I cried. And he didn’t stop at that. He continued to beat me. And, no motherfucker came for help. He beat me a lot, especially on my balls, and… and that day… I decided… that I gotta seek revenge.”

“H-Huh?” Akshay was dumbfounded. “T-The fuck…?”

“He then made a gang, so I made my gang too. It consisted of those people who hated that motherfucker just as much as I do. And our main motive is just to beat the shit outta that asshole.”

Akshay nodded. “So, that’s why all of ya just wanna fight Black Reapers guys.”

“Yeah, Sons of Satan was formed with the sole fucking purpose to beat the shit outta them.”

Akshay nodded. “I’m with ya this time.”

“Yeah. I guess we’re gonna win this time. We’ve lost too many fights against those motherfuckers. And, we won’t budge until we make that asshole kneel to us.”

Akshay stood up, looked at the back of the head of Amit, and patted him on his left shoulder. “We’re surely gonna win, goddammit.”

“Yeah. Good that ya asked me that story. I’m more pumped up than ever.”

“We’re gonna kick his ass this time. I promise.”